| Summary: | The physical and electrical properties of the metal electrodes fundamentally limit volume and frequency scaling of conventional Micro and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS) piezoelectric resonators. Furthermore, it has been shown that metal electrode damping and interface strain are responsible for the Q limits in conventional AlN Lamb wave resonators. In this thesis a stepping stone towards the development of metal-free piezoelectric NEMS resonators for ultra-high
resolution and fast resonant sensing is set by integrating a 2D graphene electrode on top of an AlN resonant nano-plate in lieu of a relatively thicker and heavier metal electrode. Despite a bottom metal interdigital electrode is still employed in this first prototype, the fabricated Graphene-Aluminum Nitride Nano Plate Resonator (G-AlN NPR) is characterized by reduced mass (~43%) and volume (~16%), increased sound velocity, hence resonant frequency (~23%), and improved device figure of
merit (kt2*Q≈18) compared to a conventional AlN NPR device.
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